At the risk of being uber-paranoid, I can't quite decide if this was the agenda all along (it's not like the religious right and corporate America haven't been bedfellows for a while now, after all. Prosperity gospel, anyone?), or if the big government takeovers are intended as the Molotov cocktail tossed into the heart of the truly regressive, government-hating, gun-toting, Christian Reconstuction/Donimionist-types.... And honestly, I'm not sure either possibility offers much hope, as you say.

Blech! Some days, it's harder than others to maintain the idea that this crap will eventually be called out and will turn around. Thing is now, I wonder if the people who are likely to reject this government-takeover stuff with the most vehemence are really the sort of people we want to be the ones rising up and making changes...